commonly known as the dog rose, is a variable climbing, wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia.
It is a deciduous shrub normally ranging in height from 1–5 metres, though sometimes it can scramble higher into the crowns of taller trees. Its stems are covered with small, sharp, hooked prickles, which aid it in climbing. The leaves are pinnate, with 5–7 leaflets. The flowers are usually pale pink, but can vary between a deep pink and white. They are 4–6 centimetres in diameter with five petals, and mature into an oval, 1.5–2-centimetre, red-orange fruit, or hip.
The first recorded significance of the flower dates back hundreds of years ago to The Academy of Floral Games (founded in 1323), which gifted poets a sprig of Dog-rose to reward them for their literary excellence. Due to this ritual, the branches became increasingly popular and can be found frequently mentioned in several famous poems. Most prevalent in the United Kingdom, William Shakespeare wrote about the flower in "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream", which in his time was called eglantine, though it can now also refer to Rosa rubiginosa (Sweet brier)
Oberon, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene I quoting his words:"With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine."
Symbolically, the meaning of this shrub is quite extensive since the two dominating themes surrounding the flower are pain and pleasure.
An old riddle, 'The Five Brethren of the Rose',
On a summer's day, in sultry weather
Five Brethren were born together
Two had beards and two had none
And the other had but half a one."
The riddle contains an effective way of identifying the differing roses of the canina group, where the brethren' refers to the five sepals of the dog-rose, two of which are whiskered on both sides, two quite smooth and the last one whiskered on one side only.
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